Microsoft announced in November 2023 that they were developing Arm-based processors, including the Azure Cobalt designed for general cloud computing tasks. As part of Construction 2024, Microsoft has now made the Azure Cobalt 100 processor available for preview in new Azure virtual machines.
According to a blog post by Microsoft, the Azure Cobalt 100 virtual machines offer improved CPU performance, particularly in Java-based workloads, web servers, .NET applications, and caching applications. They also provide increased local storage IOPS and network bandwidth compared to the previous generation of Azure Arm-based virtual machines.
During the preview period, access to the new Azure Cobalt 100 virtual machines is free, but Microsoft will charge for services utilizing these virtual machines, such as disk storage. The pricing for these services once the virtual machines are widely available is currently undisclosed.
Customers can access the new Cobalt 100 processors in Azure regions including US Central, Eastern US, US East 2, North Europe, Southeast Asia, Western Europe, and US West 2. These virtual machines support a variety of storage solutions, including Standard SSD, Standard HDD, Premium SSD, and Ultra Disk storage.
The Azure Cobalt 100 virtual machines are compatible with Insider Preview versions of Windows 11 Pro and Enterprise, as well as various Linux-based operating systems such as Ubuntu, CentOS, Debian, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Microsoft also introduced the Azure Maia AI 100 chip in November, specifically designed for AI-based services, but there is no information yet on when it will be available to the general public.
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